Cancelling cell, internet or TV: the penalty must drop every month

This is a four-article law aimed at a very concrete practice: the flat charge for cancelling early, the one that costs the same whether you leave in month two or month twenty-two. The law does not ban it outright; it conditions it. If the charge exists, it must drop month by month over the contract. It is useful both before signing — to read the clause knowing what to look for — and afterwards, when the cancellation bill arrives.

Residential consumers with fixed-term cell phone service contracts, and anyone with internet and television service contracts, whether paid or by fixed-term subscription. The law writes an express carve-out for cell service and it must be read: the prohibition shall not apply to commercial or business customers. That is, if your cell line is in a business’s name, this law does not cover you on that count. For internet and television the text does not repeat that carve-out: it speaks of those services’ contracts without distinguishing. No procedure or application is needed: the law applies on its own.

• Having a fixed-term cell phone contract as a residential consumer, or an internet or television contract, paid or by fixed-term subscription.Verified against the official source
• For cell service: not being a commercial or business customer, whom the law expressly excludes from that prohibition.Verified against the official source

• The contract with the early-termination clause. It is where you check whether the charge is prorated or a flat amount, which is what the law prohibits.
• The bill or statement showing the charge, and the date the contract started: without those two dates the prorating cannot be verified.

1. 1

   Step 1: Check whether the charge is flat or prorated

   That is the whole question. Article 1 prohibits any early-termination penalty clause in fixed-term cell phone service contracts with residential consumers **unless that penalty is prorated**, and repeats the same formula for internet and television service contracts, whether paid or by fixed-term subscription. Article 2 closes it from the other side: any contract clause in a cell phone, internet or television service contract, whether paid or subscription, containing an early-termination charge shall be prorated per Article 3. So a flat charge — the same in the first month as in the last — is exactly what the law does not allow.

2. 2

   Step 2: How the prorating is calculated, per the law

   Article 3 says it in a single sentence worth reading slowly: the prorating of early-termination charges shall be applied through proportional monthly reductions over the contract term, which at the end of that term must total no less than sixty percent (60%) of the original early-termination charge. That is, the original charge is reduced each month, and the sum of all those reductions — by the end of the term — must be at least 60% of the original charge. The law sets a floor for what must be discounted in total, not a ceiling. If your contract discounts less than that over the term, it does not comply.

3. 3

   Step 3: The two-year cap

   That same Article 3 sentence ends with a limit that gets overlooked: the period from the contract’s start to the early-termination date shall never be longer than two (2) years. It is the fact worth checking before signing a long contract with a penalty, because it bounds the period over which that charge can run. Note the date your contract started: together with the cancellation date it is all you need to verify whether the charge billed respects the prorating and this cap.

4. 4

   Step 4: If your line is a business one, this does not cover you

   Article 1 writes the carve-out in the cell service paragraph and does not hide it: it shall not apply to commercial or business customers. It is worth checking whose name the account is in before claiming, because a line in a business’s name — even if one person uses it — falls outside that protection. The same article’s second paragraph, on internet and television, does not repeat that carve-out: it speaks of internet and television service contracts, whether paid or by fixed-term subscription, without distinguishing residential from commercial. We reproduce that difference as it stands in the text and do not interpret it further.

5. 5

   Step 5: The law applies even without a regulation

   Article 4 says something that heads off a common answer: the Telecommunications Regulatory Board may issue a regulation to implement this law’s purposes, but **its adoption is not jurisdictional in nature**, so this law takes effect from the very moment of its approval. That is, whether or not a regulation exists does not change that the prohibition is in force. We name that entity as the law names it; the compilation we read is Rev. 15 April 2024 and we assert no name or agency change we have not verified.

First with the company itself, with the contract and both dates in hand. Act 157-2013 creates no complaint procedure and names no receiving forum: it is four articles setting the rule and its calculation. The Department of Consumer Affairs is the general forum for trade practices under its jurisdiction, and the Telecommunications Regulatory Board is the entity Article 4 empowers to regulate in this area. What we do not publish: which of the two forums a complaint about this charge belongs to exactly, or the procedure, form or deadlines, because this law does not say and we will not assume it.

• Paying a flat charge without checking whether it is prorated, which is the only thing the law allows.
• Not noting the date the contract started: without it the prorating cannot be verified.
• Claiming for a cell line in a business’s name, which the law expressly excludes.
• Reading the 60% as a cap on what they can charge you: the law writes it as the minimum the reductions must total.
• Accepting "there is no regulation" as an answer: Article 4 says the law is in force from its approval.
• Signing a long contract with a penalty without checking Article 3’s two-year cap.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Asuntos del Consumidor (DACO)

  DACO

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov

• Department of Consumer Affairs (DACO)

  DACO

  www.daco.pr.gov